Finally upgrading; need advice

[Argaen]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Right now, I will be running a few virtual machines to practice IT certifications. In the next few months after that, I will upgrade the video cards to use it solely as a gaming machine for Battlefield 3, etc.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$800 before taxes and shipping; free shipping from amazon prime as well.

3) Where do you live?
Tucson, Arizona

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget?
cpu (probably 2500k?), motherboard (no idea what to get), ram (probably 8gb gskill?), case: ft02b(must have this case included, 230 shipped for me on amazon), cpu cooler (need a lot of help here, also). I would like to get an ssd, even if it was a smaller one ofr the OS only, but I don't think I have the budget for it at the moment.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
I am going to reuse my corsair 750TX psu, my wd caviar black hd, dvd drive, and 9800gtx graphics card.

6) Will you be overclocking?
I'm hoping for a modest overclock of ~4ghz or so.

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
22" Samsung; Will upgrade to 27" when I upgrade video cards in the fall.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
In the next two weeks

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.
Crossfire/SLI support; maybe a debug led would be useful too.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Windows 7 64bit

I know Danny helped me build my current machine three years ago, almost to the day. It has ran beautifully ever since then. You're advice then was gold, and I see you are still around here giving out at advice. Many props to everyone on this forum who always help people like me fit the maximum amount of components into a budget!

 

[Dangman]

If you're willing to go over by $55:
$375 - Intel Core i5 2500K CPU + MSI P67A-GD65 Intel P67 ATX Motherboard Combo
$100 - 2 x G.Skill Value Series F3-10600CL9D-8GBNT 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$27 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus HSF for LGA 1366 and LGA 1156
$120 - Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SSD
$230 - Silverstone FT02B ATX Case
----
Total: $855 shipped.

Meets every single one of your requirements. Though you can drop the SSD if you want to get under budget.

 

[plugwash]

So the case (any particular reason for insisting on such an expensive case) and CPU you have picked out would have spent about $450. That leaves you about $350 in your budget for the rest.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128502 looks like a pretty good deal mobo wise, no debug LED but it does support both crossfire and SLI and it's pretty cheap $130

8GB of basic DDR3 1333 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231422 will set you back $50

That leaves $130 in the budget, you can get a basic 60GB SSD for $100 e.g. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233188 , it won't be the fastest drive arround but it should be much better in random access than a spinning platter.

That leaves $30 in the budget for a heatsink. I'll leave the reccomendations to someone else but I reckon you can pick up a sufficiantly good heatsink for mild overclocking for that price (heck if the case has good cooling you may be able to get away with the stock cooler)

 

[Argaen]

Thanks guys! The reason I wanted that case..well I currently have an Antec 100 that I am tired of. Its decent, but I found I really liked the look and setup of the ft02. I figure it would be a good investment and last quite a while. Do you guys want to suggest another case that would alter my budget? Also is ddr3 1333 ok or should I be going higher for the ddr3 1600?

 

[Dangman]

Thanks guys! The reason I wanted that case..well I currently have an Antec 100 that I am tired of. Its decent, but I found I really liked the look and setup of the ft02. I figure it would be a good investment and last quite a while. Do you guys want to suggest another case that would alter my budget? Also is ddr3 1333 ok or should I be going higher for the ddr3 1600?

DDR3 1333 RAM is ok. If you want save money by going cheaper on the case, I recommend the following cases:
$90 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$100 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$110 - NZXT Whisper WHI - 001BK ATX Full Tower Case
$110 - Lian Li PC-60FN ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7FN ATX Case
$120 - Velocity Micro GX2-W Silver Classic Aluminum Case with Side Window
$120 - Fractal Design Arc Mini Tower
$127 - Fractal Design Define R3 Black ATX Case
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - Lian Li PC-9F ATX Case
$140 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$143 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-002OR Black Finish w/Orange Trim Full Tower ATX Case
$150 - Corsair Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$160 - Silverstone RV02B-W ATX case
$178 - Silverstone RV02B-EW ATX case
$190 - Corsair Obsidian Series 650D ATX Case

 

[Argaen]

The silverstone rv02b seems fairly similar to the ft02, so maybe I will drop down to that one or even the corsair 600T seems nice. Thanks for the help!